Little Bird

I was hoping for more lilac, but I'm not really getting a noticeable lilac or rose from this. It kind of smells like green flower stems (like the frozen ones in a flortist's fridge) and creamy, white spring floral on my skin. As it dries down, there's a powdery amber, but it still smells like a chilly, clean, floral scent to me. The bergamot is bright, but barely there in the background. This one is nice enough, but not for me.

I've been on the fence about this scent, but it's ultimately going to my swap pile. I want to love the golden, delicately sweet frankincense, but the white florals come in sharp, sour and almost rubbery smelling. The ambergris adds a watery amber-aquatic-salty cologne thing that I don't like with the white floral. The amber quality turns powdery in the drydown. I don't hate this, but I never really find myself wanting to wear it either.

I find Frosted Pumpkin Spice Cookie to be softer and sweeter than the Pumpkin Cheesecake Cupcake blend. It smells like gingerbread cookies and cinnamon buns decorated with a frosting made of cream cheese, powdered sugar and a little bit of lemon and vanilla extract. The frosting part is strong and smells absolutely delicious. I really like this blend.

This smells like cream cheese swirled pumpkin bread with a dusting of cinnamon and powdered sugar on top. I love the cheesecake part of it, and wish that my skin didn't amp up cinnamon so much. I'm surprised at the reviews saying this faded quickly, because it's really strong and long lasting on my skin (then again, my skin latches on to spices). Creamy, vanilla-y cheesecake, cinnamon, and cakey goodness.

There's something very nailpolish remover and cheap hairspray about this scent. It's very strange, sharp and chemical. Underneath the sharpness, there's a perfumey, sugary, sickly-sweet, almost berry-ish somehing. I don't think that I'd ever smell this and think apple or candy apple, though. It's like a sugary berry scented hairspray, maybe. I was hoping that this would be more like Sugar-Slathered Candied Apple, Candy Corn Coated Candy Apple, or Creepy. It's not nearly sweet enough for me, though, and the perfumey/sharp/chemical overtones give me a headache.

When I first got my bottle of Apple Cider in the mail, it was way too spicy and sharp, but it seems to have mellowed out after a month. First on, this smells like someone took red fruit punch and filled it up with lots of cinnamon and cider spices. As it dries down, the spices soften and are more sweet and less sharp, and the fruit punch is less tart and smells more & more like real, juicy apples. It starts to remind me of baked apples with a cinnamon sugar glaze (kind of vanilla-y), next to a glass of chilled apple cider. I like how it smells of warm spices and chilled apple at the same time. After an hour, the scent gets a hint of smoky dead leaf to it on my skin for some reason, and it smells so much like an idealized version of autumn. I don't know if I'll keep my bottle, because I have trouble wearing scents this spicy, but I do enjoy the apple and sweetness here. It smells very much like fall.

My favorite of the apple scents. The apple smells like a mix of sweet red apple and clean green apple, sweetened up with tons of coconut cream, toasted coconut, and a woody, almost chocolatey fig note. I love the lab's fig note, and I like how the crisp parts of the apple keep this from going too sweet.

Smells like very sweet, candied red apple shampoo (has that undercurrent of soapiness) and sharp cider spices. I get no black currant or vanilla, and the spiciness doesn't really smell like clove so much as it does a really sharp cinnamon. I like the sweet red apple note a lot, but the sharp spice gives me a headache, and I'm sad that there's no currant or vanilla to be found.

Apple III smells very jumbled and strange on me. Soapy apple shampoo, a sour patchouli that turns into body odor territory for me, and really medicinal, bitter lavender and honey. The drydown shifts more and more into sickly-sweet apple, sweet tobacco, and sour orange blossom with sour patchouli. Not for me.

My least favorite of the Apples this year. The apple smells green, tart and sharp, and the lemon smells sharp and sour on my skin. I can't pick out the other listed notes, and the apple & lemon combo is just too sour and soapy smelling for me.

This is a fresh, clean, cool, green apple smell to me, on a bed of dusty hay and warm, powdery, creamy honey and oats. The apple part reminds me of Snow, Glass, Apples, but this is paired with warmer, sweeter notes. The only note that I can't pick out is the milk. Apple I is honeyed apple and hay.

Starts off as a green, medicinal, slightly bitter, herbs and honey mix. Goes through a strange, soapy phase. The drydown is mostly beeswax and honey, but still has an herbal bitterness to it, and it's reminding me more and more of candle wax. This one is not for me.

This is my least favorite of the Dead Leaves series, but it's still good enough that I'll keep my bottle of it. Dead Leaves, Bourbon Vanilla and Myrrh has a really baby powdery, dry vanilla and sharp green leaf thing happening to it, and the myrrh is sharp and a little sour here. The drydown is quite sharp and perfumey, mixed with the powder and green leaf. I was hoping for more of a creamy, sweet vanilla and rich, sweet myrrh, but the whole thing is rather more thin, sharp, green, and powdery..

I get nothing but copal from this blend (and it's like the copal in bpal's El Dorado). It's a very dry, dark, glittering gold, woody-resinous incense scent. It also smells like it has a hint of patchouli to it, which I often get from copal. I don't really smell the dead leaves or frankincense, but that's fine, because I like the copal note enough on its own.

Smells like an autumn sunset, with the red musk and neroli conjuring up images of fiery reds and oranges. The dead leaves hang out in the background, and it makes me think of sitting out on the deck on an unusually warm night in autumn, watching the sunset's colors match the changing leaves. I'm really happy with all of the Dead Leaves fragrances. They're simple, but good, and easy to wear.

The creamy, vanilla-y honey and dark sweetness of this scent really reminds me of Dragon's Milk. As it dries down, it starts to turn slightly powdery on my skin. Powdery, creamy, vanilla-honey on a bed of dry woods with a hint of dry leaves.

I love this scent, especially on my husband. I think that it smells very manly and sexy. The black pepper in this is great - very dark, sensual, and spicy. The sandalwood doesn't smell like its usually bright, powdery, creamy woods, but rather smells like a really dark, polished, exotic wood note (almost rosewood-ish on me). And the whole thing makes me think of black musk, leather, and darkness. Has something of a man's cologne feel that I just love.

Initially this smells like a huge slap of sharp, green leaves and I was really disappointed. The drydown, however, smells exactly like bpal's French Tobacco single note with just a hint of green leaf. It's like sweet chewing tobacco, peppery spice, a hint of bonfire smoke, and a mix of dead and green leaves.

I think that The Manuscript is my favorite leather scent from bpal. If I try, I can imagine that it has leather, ink, a chill, and fresh, new notebook paper in it, but mostly it smells like walking into a leather store at the mall. It's all new leather jackets, and smells soft and clean, almost creamy, in the way that new leather does.

Edit: I loved this when I first got it (see original review below), but it hasn't aged well at all. I wish I'd worn it more when it was fresh. The musk is so strong now, and it smells like a cheap, sharp, hairspray-esque white musk. The florals smell sour and chemical (reminding me of tuberose with a hint of dry, red rose). I can smell the plum, which adds a slight sweetness in the drydown, but the sharp musk and sour, heavy white floral feel is my anti-scent. It also has a hint of a fecal note to it on my skin. It smells like a cheap drugstore perfume with sharp white musk and white florals that smell chemical and like that alcohol base smell never really wears off. Really disappointed. I'm selling most of my Crimson Peaks after a year of aging. --------- Original review: Lady Lucille Sharpe is a beautiful scent, and hard to describe, because it smells like much more than its listed notes. I love that the black amber doesn't go baby powdery and that it makes Lucille share a similar feel with the Thomas Sharpe scent. Lady Lucille smells very good mixed with Thomas Sharpe or Black Moths. I keep thinking that there's a little bit of red musk in this scent, but I'm not sure if that's the garnet or maybe the plum musk and rose mixing together in a red musk-ish way. And, for some reason, this perfume overall smells very much like a rich vanilla on my skin. It has a lovely, rich sweetness to it. The plum smells very dark and sweet to me too. The lily, rose and ylang ylang are present, but they just swirl together to add this haughty, heavy, decadent floral perfume feel to the fragrance. It smells expensive. I'm pleasantly surprised by how smooth and sweet this fragrance is, and I love how layered and complex it is. It's a dark fragrance, but rich and sweet as well. I thought that Thomas Sharpe and Alan McMichael were my favorite of the Crimson Peaks, but I think that Lucille Sharpe and Black Moths are winning now. I love this one more every time I wear it.

Black Moths actually isn't very smoky on me, and I get more patchouli than vetiver from it. I was worried about all of the other reviews mentioning woodsmoke and heavy vetiver, but I don't really get that at all, and vetiver is usually strong on me. I was worried when I first applied this scent, because it goes on as a really sour, watery, mushy smelling plum. Thankfully, the plum fades away after a couple minutes and the drydown is magical. I love patchouli, and that's mainly what I'm getting here. It's a dark and earthy patchouli, but very soft on my skin (like feathers and dusty moth wings), and the fruit and florals are rather nondescript, but remind me of black currant and black orchid with a little hint of red rose. Overall, Black Moths is like a really dark and gothic fruity-floral laying on a bed of very soft, almost creamy smelling patchouli. Really wonderful on my skin. And I love this one layered with Lucille Sharpe.

I am not enjoying the vanilla musk in Edith. It smells like the salty, melted butter in microwave popcorn and a sharp, dry, clean white musk that gives me a headache. I wound up scrubbing this one off after 3 hours of wear. Very strange and unpleasant on my skin.

Super baby powdery amber, a citrus and musky men's cologne that reminds me a little bit of Wilde, and a strange, imposing scent that's just like oily Skin So Soft. Powdery, warm, and strangely feminine in spite of its masculine musk. I liked this more when I first got it, but it has turned intensely powdery and musky over the past year. It's so much like a mix of baby powder and Skin So Soft oil. I sold my bottle off recently and am not sad to see it go.

I liked this when I first got it, but after a year of aging, decided to just sell my bottle. It's so overwhelmingly baby powdery, and the sandalwood has a dry, bitter tone to it that I find very off putting. The bay rum/gingerbread smell that I liked so much when I first got this is no more, completely overtaken by the sandalwood. It also has a strange, powdery, rubbery smell to it, like stretching out a rubber balloon before you blow it up. I find it unwearable now.

Mother Ghost is lots of lemony, strongly honeyed, watery tea, which I was not expecting at all. The vanilla, white musk and floral notes smell like a proper ladies perfume, but mostly this is honeyed tea on my skin. It's like a dainty tea party. I get more of a fresh rose and powdery amber in the drydown, and it's like having a tea party in a little rose garden with wafts of perfumey, white musk and soft vanilla floating through the air.